Deeplinks Blog posts about The Global Network Initiative

What has long been an EFF issue is once again making headlines. In recent days, the world is seeing damning reports of authoritarian regimes spying on their citizens using American- and European-made surveillance technologies, with new evidence emerging from Bahrain, Libya, Syria, and Thailand.

Ever since Google’s January 2010 decision to cease censorship of its Chinese-language search engine, the world has watched closely to see what would happen next. The ensuing cat-and-mouse game of information repression and dissemination represented a serious challenge to the ability of the Internet to remain free and open in the face of totalitarian government censorship. Would Google cease all operations in China? Would China block access to Google altogether?

Making good on its promise to stop censoring results of its Chinese language website earlier this year, Google announced on Monday that its uncensored search services are now live. Chinese Internet users searching at google.cn are now redirected to google.com.hk, where its Chinese language results are delivered through its servers in Hong Kong. Google is also cleverly keeping public track of the availability of its services in China.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement of a new U.S. policy on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the responsibilities of American technology companies:

...We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what’s right, not simply what’s a quick profit.

Secretary Clinton's speech last week on Internet Freedom was an important step in bringing online free expression and privacy to the forefront of the United States' foreign policy agenda.

But for all the strong language, it was also a speech of caveats: powerful statements like "we stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas" sat close to hedges about the dangers of anonymous speech, and how it might be used to distribute "stolen intellectual property". Clinton expressed concern at those who "violate the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent political speech", but she also spoke of "redoubl[ing] efforts" similar to the Convention on Cybercrime, a document which provides scant protections for the privacy of anyone being investigated by a foreign government.